Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk

The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.

1621 ET - A higher federal funds rate today is the medicine that the housing market needs to recover tomorrow, Zillow's Mischa Fisher says in a note. Mortgage rates are more likely to come down next year if the market has greater confidence that inflation is getting under control, Fisher says. Unfortunately, it will still be a tough end of the year for home sales until then, she says. The recent run-up in rates is hitting an already slow housing market, where sales volume has started to decline year-over-year from an already low baseline, Fisher says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

1528 ET - Q/C Technologies shares mostly rebounded from a 67% drop Monday and a 52-week low Tuesday, more than doubling late Wednesday. The optical-computing company late Friday disclosed that consulting agreements with an entity affiliated with Martin Shkreli and with OpenAI scientist Chelsea Voss were mutually terminated. Voss also resigned from the board. Earlier Wednesday, adviser James Altucher posted on X about the company's AI-powered platform for chip design, which coincided with an intraday peak in the company's share price. Shares were recently at $1.06, up 139%, amid very volatile trading and still below Friday's close of $1.71. (josh.beckerman@wsj.com)

1512 ET - Cryptocurrencies are roughly flat on a 24-hour trailing basis after the Federal Reserve raised rates as expected. Sector leader Bitcoin is slightly higher than where it was 24 hours earlier, and half a percentage point higher than where it was this morning, according to data from CoinGlass. Other top coins are in the green as well. The market took a tumble on Tuesday after the Senate blocked an industry-friendly bill, setting up Wednesday's rate decision as the next big driver of price action. While higher interest rates make risky assets like crypto less attractive, the broader market seems to have priced in a rate hike, and a rate hold wouldn't have done much to loosen the tight backdrop that Bitcoin is currently facing, analysts at Glassnode say in a report. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

1431 ET - The failure of the crypto-friendly Clarity Act in Congress removes a positive catalyst for the crypto space but doesn't create any kind of new regulatory shock, Morgan Stanley analysts say in a research note. Regulation of digital assets in the U.S. has already moved materially over the past year, reducing the enforcement risks that historically constrained product development and institutional participation, the analysts say. While the failed vote may hurt near-term sentiment around crypto investing, the industry itself seemed prepared for it, given that prediction market odds for the vote passing had fallen by the time the vote was held, they say. "Disappointment largely priced in," the analysts say. (dean.seal@wsj.com)

1353 ET - Mattel's 3Q sales were hurt last year by industry-wide shifts in ordering patterns, as retailers more cautiously managed their inventories amid macroeconomic and trade uncertainty. This year, though, ordering trends seem to have stabilized, Mattel CFO Paul Ruh says at the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference. Sales may be a bit more concentrated toward the back half of the year, Ruh says, but recent activations and a strong slate of upcoming movie releases give the toymaker confidence to achieve its full-year outlook. On the bottom line, higher costs for commodities, packaging materials, labor and fuel pose a headwind, Ruh says. But those are being offset by favorable foreign exchange rates and lower-than-expected tariff costs, he adds. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1352 ET - United Airlines CFO Mike Leskinen says premium is the priority across the travel industry. He says at a Morgan Stanley conference that hotels, cruise lines and car service providers are all jumping on the premium trend that started with airlines increasing their higher-class seating capacity. Premium has higher margins for the companies, and it plays on consumers' increasing interest in experiences, Leskinen says. He believes travelers now prioritize experiences over products, so they are willing to pay more. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1350 ET - United Airlines says its customers have remained resilient despite higher fare prices. United flyers have disposable income and want to spend on experiences, even as prices rise due to higher fuel costs, CFO Mike Leskinen says during a Morgan Stanley conference. Demand has stayed strong in 3Q and bookings are strong for 4Q, though there is a little weakness among lower-income consumers, Leskinen says. "If you squint at some of the lower-priced tickets, you might be able to find something there," he says, but Premium tickets are "humming along very nicely." (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1347 ET - United Airlines plans to continue cutting marginal routes as fuel costs remain elevated, CFO Mike Leskinen says during a Morgan Stanley conference. The airline has already cut some of those routes as the war in Iran has driven up fuel costs, he says. In 4Q, there will be some flights in December that won't fly that United originally thought would, Leskinen says. If fuel costs remain high, United plans to make more adjustments in 1Q and beyond in 2027. "We are not flying to maximize market share. We're flying to maximize profitability and free cash generation," Leskinen says. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1346 ET - The toy industry is having a very strong year, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz says at the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference. Industry-wide sales are up double digits, driven by strength across games, trading cards, action figures, vehicles and building sets, Kreiz says, citing Circana data. "Even when you take out trading cards, which benefited from the World Cup, toys as a category remains a very strong driver," he adds. Mattel is benefiting from both higher volumes and prices, resulting in quarter-to-date growth, according to Kreiz. "We are very confident about the continued growth and expect to achieve our full-year guidance in this environment," he concludes. (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1320 ET - Anthony Moisant, chief information and security officer at Indeed, says humans still need to be in the loop when it comes to AI. Companies need to have people as part of the process when making consequential decisions around AI systems, because if left unchecked, those decisions can create unintended downstream effects, Moisant said at the WSJ Technology Council Summit. In Indeed's case, an example of an unintended downstream effect would be a decision that inadvertently closes a door for a job seeker: "Preventing somebody from getting a job because we made a bad experimentation decision would be pretty horrendous," Moisant says. The key to avoiding such a case, he continues, is education. "We've got to have the guard-rails in place. We've got to have that rigor around cost transparency, around security, around privacy, around education." (connor.hart@wsj.com)

1316 ET - A cybersecurity workflow that would have taken months in the days before AI can now be executed within five to eight minutes using AI agents, Galina Antova, CEO of cybersecurity firm Kai, said at The WSJ Technology Council Summit. "So when the attackers are executing at machine speed, defense can do that at the same time," Antova said. Of course, most large enterprises have to incrementally revamp their cybersecurity stacks over time to arrive at an end-to-end, AI-powered cybersecurity solution. "You're flying the plane as you're rebuilding it," she said. "But the horizon is few months. The horizon is not three years, because we don't have that kind of time." (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)

1240 ET - The SEC isn't shying away from crypto regulation, even after the failure of a key bill that would have set the first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. "With or without legislation, we will act decisively within the SEC's statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors and for the entrepreneurs shaping our technological future," SEC Chair Paul Atkins says in a post to X. The Clarity Act, which would have helped usher digital assets into the mainstream financial system, fell short of the votes required to advance in Congress in a Tuesday vote. (kelly.cloonan@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2026 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)